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- Convenors:
-
Chikara Uchida
(The University of Tokyo)
Yufei Zhou (Teikyo University)
Tomoji Onozuka (The University of Tokyo)
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- Chair:
-
Till Knaudt
(Kyoto University)
- Discussant:
-
Torsten Weber
(DIJ Tokyo)
- Section:
- Intellectual History and Philosophy
- Sessions:
- Saturday 28 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on economists' and entrepreneurs' reflections of capitalism in interwar Japan. By analyzing diverse capitalism-images of social reformists associated with the "Social Policy Association", this panel seeks to re-approach Japan's interwar capitalism from an intellectual aspect.
Long Abstract:
On April 9, 2019, the Japanese government announced new designs for its banknotes. With the selection of Shibusawa Eiichi, a pioneering industrialist and the "father of modern Japanese capitalism" as the face for the ¥10,000 note, the general interest in Japan's capitalism has been rekindled in the post-Lehman era. Our panel focuses on Japan's capitalism in its transitional phase during the interwar period, shedding particular light on Japanese economists' and entrepreneurs' reflections on the cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism, as well as their effort to change society through social reforms.
The interwar Japanese economy and society was characterized by the prolonged economic slump and social unrest caused by mass unemployment. Compared to the major Western capitalist countries, where institutional measures to negotiate labor-capital tensions had been facilitated during the war mobilization, Japan lacked an efficient mechanism to bargain with the working class. Against the background of the global spread of communism, domestic social problems became a vivid threat for the country's policymakers and think-tanks. Among the advocates of various camps, the intellectuals, politicians, and business leaders affiliated with the "Social Policy Association" (1897-1924) had most convincingly articulated a reformist "third-way" between laissez-faire policies and socialist revolution. Based on their studies pertaining to Europe and the United States and their rich personal networks outside Japan, this group of intellectuals obtained insights into the mechanisms and pitfalls of capitalism through the transnational flow of knowledge and information, and artfully merged them into a structured whole.
Our panel addresses several prominent personages and institutions related to the "Social Policy Association." They include Honda Seiroku (1866-1952), professor of agriculture and the designer of more than 100 modern landscape gardens, who was equally famous as a stock market investor; Kawada Shirō (1883-1942), economist, social policy advocate, and the founding director of the Osaka University of Commerce; and lastly the founding actors of The Ohara Institute for Social Research (1919-). Our panel explores the image of an ideal capitalist society envisioned by Japan's reformist elites during a transitional phase characterized by rising social inequality, military expansion, and Japan's escalating aggression in Asia.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 28 August, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper clarifies how Honda Seiroku (1866-1952), a forestry professor, sought to improve society through the use of natural resources. Through his economic commentaries and activities, it shows that his ideas on the economy during the interwar period triggered activities for social improvement.
Paper long abstract:
During the interwar period in Japan, businesspersons, company-holders, and academicians alike tried to understand the issues surrounding the capitalist economy and to reflect that understanding in their activities. Intellectuals also helped spread the new realities and ideas of capitalism throughout Japan, including its colonies. Of course, the way they understood it varied depending on their field of expertise and personality. However, if we focus on the ideas that are particular to capitalism, like capital or investment, how did these intellectuals apply them to situations outside the market world? In particular, how was the idea of investment addressed, an idea that is frequently deplored by academicians in present-day Japan in discourses critical of "neo-liberalism"?
One prime example, and the subject of my paper, is Honda Seiroku (1866-1952), a professor in the Faculty of Agriculture at the Imperial University of Tokyo. He not only taught forestry at the university but also and worked outside the university as a scholar actively involved in social work, such as designing public parks throughout Japan and delivering frequent public lectures. He was also an individual investor, investing in the stock market and the forests themselves, managing his own assets. It is thought that, behind his activities, he learned a great deal from German economist Lujo Brentano, with whom he had become acquainted when he was studying in Germany. Actually, it was Brentano's advice that led Honda to start investing.
While he did not write many articles of economic criticism, he was a professor who was conscious of the issues that were endemic to capitalism at that time, and focused on social improvement related to capitalist economics. From this perspective, the current paper will analyze his economic commentaries and social activities. This will clarify how Honda sought to improve society through the use of natural resources such as forests. By analyzing his perception on capitalism, and later, the totalitarian economic regime, it shows that his recognition of Japanese economy during the interwar period triggered various activities for social improvement like designing public parks.
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on Kawada Shirō, a professional economist who contributed to social reforms both in theory and practice. This paper analyzes Kawada's writings on capitalism and social policy, seeking to shed light on how Japanese economic elites perceived capitalism in its transitional period.
Paper long abstract:
In 1909, Kawada Shirō 河田嗣郎 (1883-1942), the young associate professor of economics from the Imperial University Kyoto, delivered a speech on overpopulation and emigration at the annual conference of the "Social Policy Association" (Shakai Seisaku Gakkai). Kawada argued that the seemingly problematic issue of overpopulation was overblown and could easily be solved if the equal distribution of wealth and income was ensured by the operative social policies. Between 1912 and 1915, Kawada studied in Germany, France, Britain, and the United States---where he observed the issues caused by poverty and the working conditions in industries and agriculture. Strongly influenced by the contemporary German 'Kathedersozialisten' (socialists of the chair), Kawada aimed at improving the working and living conditions of the proletariat and thereby moderating social conflicts by social reforms rather than socialist revolution--a more radical political position represented by his fellow-countryman Kawakami Hajime.
As the chronic depression after World War I (WWI) replaced the export-led economic boom and various social conflicts surged in both urban and rural Japan, Kawada acted as one of the most productive social policy advocates, publishing extensively on various social issues, including urban poverty, the food crisis, labor unions, the ground rent problem in rural Japan, feminism, and so on. In 1928, Kawada was appointed as the first director of the newly founded Osaka University of Commerce (1928). He smartly utilized his personal networks and transformed this former higher commercial school into one of the strongholds for social policy scholars in interwar Japan. Meanwhile, Kawada also contributed significantly to the city's policymaking through his personal connection with the mayor, Seki Hajime.
This paper focuses on Kawada Shiro's writings on urban social issues and his actions to solve these issues. Based on a careful examination of Kawada's articles, reports, and monographs in the light of the concrete social realities he was explicitly addressing, this paper explores how the social reformers affiliated with the "Social Policy Association" grasped the rising social tensions, and outlines the ideal capitalist society they envisioned during the interwar years.
Paper short abstract:
I focus on three reformist academics and entrepreneurs in 1920s and 1930s Japan, and follow their contours to proceed in the field of social policy. The main question is the reason why they failed to constrain the right wing ultra-nationalist politics in 1930s and early 1940s.
Paper long abstract:
In the interwar period Japan suffered from long and chronic economic slump, popular pauperism and social unrest, which became the hotbed both for ultra-nationalism and organized socialist movement. Before the First World War young scholars such as TAKANO Iwasaburo, ONOZUKA Kiheiji, and FUKUDA Tokuzo had already recognized the importance of Social Policy as a bulwark against socialism, and they organized the Japanese Verein für Sozialpolitik in 1897 followed the German Verein für Socialpolitik. This association included not only scholars but also labor activist and entrepreneurs who pursued the possibility of social reform in Japan in the early stage of industrialization.
After the First World War there emerged various style of ultra-nationalism as another protestant against capitalism. Then the Japanese reformist academics labor activists and entrepreneurs became obliged to operate on two different fronts. Japanese "semi-feudal, absolutist and militarist" Government was active in suppressing socialism since the late nineteenth century, and after the legislation of Peace Preservation Act of 1925, the main objections became heard from ultra-nationalist and militarist right wing. This paper focuses on three reformist academics and entrepreneurs in the 1920s and 1930s, TAKANO Iwasaburo, OHARA Magosaburo and HIRAO Hachisaburo, who were the last liberal and calm opinion leaders in the period when Japanese right wing activities risen their strength and made direct violence and terrorism against not only socialists but also liberal politicians.
After the disarmaments in the 1920s and early 1930s Japanese right wing politics sought to the expansion of armaments, and the military buildup lead to economic and military invasion into Asian continental regions such as Manchuria, China and Vietnam. The reformist academics and entrepreneurs kept distant from such right wing militaristic movement, but failed to prevent such movement from occupy socio-political scene in Japan in 1930s and early 1940s. How and why they failed to constrain the right wing ultra-nationalist politics? This question is important to understand Japanese past and also the present situations of revitalization of nationalism in the second globalization in the twenty first century.